Chicken run: Digging in at Cocina Cuzco in the East Village.

WHIRLY BIRDS
Rotisserie chicken with a Latin spin

We're still mourning the flight of El Pollo, our favorite source for expertly seasoned Peruvian-style rotisserie chicken, from its Upper East Side roost. But birds of a feather do seem to flock together, as we discovered last Memorial Day when the vacant El Pollo space reopened as the first Manhattan branch of Queens-based Pio Pio. The chicken, prominently featured in the gut-busting "matador combo," is as juicy and succulent as its counterparts in Rego Park and Jackson Heights. For $28, a ravenous couple or a threesome of average appetites can ravage a whole bird, plus rice and beans, avocado salad, tostones, and a very kid-friendly plate of French fries adorned with sliced hot dogs that turns out to be a straight-from-Lima street food called salchipapa.

Downtown, we're partial to the exceptional birds at Cocina Cuzco, a friendly Avenue A storefront that won us over with its spectacular two-tone herb dipping sauce, made from huacatay and yerba buena, which adds a subtly spicy kick to everything from the moist, marinated chicken to the freebie bowl of cancha (roasted corn kernels) and plantain chips. Last month, a second Cocina Cuzco opened in Park Slope, a potential threat to the sovereignty of Coco Roco, heretofore the Slope's leading purveyor of Peruvian roasted chicken and a good source for various lime-marinated seviches. For a different Latino take on birds on a spit, try the excellent "pollo rostizado estilo Yucatán" at Gabriela's, the bustling Mexican cantina with two Upper West Side branches. For $8.95, you get half a bird, rubbed with sweet, citrusy spices, a choice of two sides (we love the herby stewed hominy), and three hot corn tortillas. Splurge on all three moles -- a fruity mancha manteles, a peanutty pipian, and a smoky dark mole negro -- for $1.25 each. We can never choose just one.

PIO PIO, 1746 First Ave., near 91st St. (212-426-5800); COCINA CUZCO, 55 Ave. A (212-529-3469), and 222 Seventh Ave., Brooklyn (718-788-5036); COCO ROCO, 392 Fifth Ave., Brooklyn (718-965-3376); GABRIELA'S, 311 Amsterdam Ave., at 75th St. (212-875-8532).

MANHATTAN LATINS
Four righteous rice-and-beaneries

Lately, we've been spending a lot of time at Javier, a sunny West Village storefront with a handful of tables, a mellow vibe, a pre-Buena Vista Social Club soundtrack, and a knack for soupy, scrumptious red and black beans. It's clear from the first bite of the tender, vinegary ropa vieja that Javier is cut from the same culinary cloth as some of our favorite well-worn Latino lunch counters -- places like La Taza de Oro, La Fonda Boricua, and Margon -- that serve up good cheer and cheap, savory chow in equal measure. Owner Javier Martinez is part of a grand Spanish-American tradition -- even though he calls it "Latin-Caribbean" -- and he honors it with juicy pernil (roasted pork marinated in sage, oregano, and garlic) and pollo asado, a moist roast chicken that gets a double dose of garlic -- once when it's marinated and again in the sandwich when it's slathered with ajilimojili, a lethal blend of garlic, olive oil, and lemon (from $1.50 for a savory stuffed pastelillo to $7.50 for generous main dishes with rice and beans).

JAVIER, 70 Greenwich Ave. (212-929-7878); LA TAZA DE ORO, 96 Eighth Ave., near 15th St. (212-243-9946); LA FONDA BORICUA, 169 E. 106th St. (212-410-7292); MARGON, 136 W. 46th St. (212-354-5013).

TACO BELLES
Maximum Mexican, minimal cost

With a few exceptions, New York Mexican food is inherently cheap, but that still doesn't mean that you should settle on just any old burrito barn. Not with East Harlem increasingly populated by good, cheap taquerías like El Paso Taquería and La Taquicardia (an offshoot of the pioneering La Hacienda down the block). And not when you can grab a stool at Matamoros Puebla Taquería in Williamsburg and stuff yourself silly with $1.50 sopes, $2 soft tacos, and $4.50 tortas, fastidiously made by two kindly hair-netted women struggling to feed the onslaught of hungry hipsters.

Matamoros isn't a restaurant, just a makeshift kitchen in the back of a Mexican grocery store, and the pickings -- including tamales on the weekends and a $5 off-the-menu burrito -- are relatively slim. But the snacks, or antojitos, here possess much more flavor and pizzazz than you'd have any right to expect, considering the price and the slapdash, paper-plate setting. Red and green salsas are fresh and vibrant; stewed meats are moist and flavorful, from pork head (cabeza) to beef feet (pata). Vegetarians, relax: They do a mean rajas con papas taco (peppers and potatoes) for just $1.50. And the tortas -- wonderful pressed sandwiches with mild white cheese, avocado, salsa, and the meat of your choice -- are without peer.

EL PASO TAQUERIA, 1642 Lexington Ave., at 104th St. (212-831-9831); LA TAQUICARDIA, 237 E. 116th St. (212-369-9782); MATAMOROS PUEBLA TAQUERIA, 193 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn (718-782-5044).

A LITTLE ROMANCE
Four sweet places to take a date

What's so terrible about a cheap date? you ask. Isn't it the thought that counts? Well, yes, but flattering lighting and ambient music can't hurt, either. You'd be surprised how some places manage to conjure romantic atmosphere on the skimpiest of shoestring budgets -- it's all about scale (small) and service (friendly but not intrusive, casual but not distracted). It's a subtle art, one that the teeny panini-and-wine bar 'ino has mastered with its supremely sensuous finger food: bruschetta and panini lavished with creamy cheeses, pungent pestos, or a drizzle of truffle oil ($2 to $7).

But 'ino's not the only place that wins big by thinking small: When a joint has only five tables, like A, three is definitely a crowd. A's French-Caribbean-inspired menu is as tiny as its unfussy premises, but the mellow vibe and the nonstop reggae and ska invite lingering long after the last bite of curried lamb pie with coconut crème fraîche (one of only six dinner dishes, all in the $7-to-$10 range). Like A, Snack, the sweet little SoHo Greek café, is BYOB (though Snack has applied for a liquor license). At night, the rough-hewn storefront takes on a candlelit luster and a significantly expanded menu, with substantial entrées like braised lamb stifado and vegetarian moussaka ($10.95 to $12.95).

If you're a sucker for nostalgia and a connoisseur of Sicilian pizza, take someone special to L&B Spumoni Gardens, a 62-year-old landmark in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, where locals and pizza pilgrims line up for the signature square pie (a light, crunchy crust, adorned with a bare minimum of mozzarella cheese beneath a layer of tangy tomato sauce) and a paper cup of the house spumoni. American Graffiti meets GoodFellas.

'INO, 21 Bedford St. (212-989-5769); A, 947 Columbus Ave., near 106th St. (212-531-1643); SNACK, 105 Thompson St. (212-925-1040); L&B SPUMONI GARDENS, 2725 86th St., Brooklyn (718-449-1230).

CALCULATING PIE
The pizza kings of Queens

Speaking of pizza pilgrimages, we've done Denino's (Staten Island), Totonno's (Coney Island), and Pepe's and Sally's (New Haven) -- all mandatory excursions for any pizza freak. But it takes more than a pizza margherita -- no matter how masterly -- to bring us back again and again.

At Nick's Pizza in Forest Hills, Queens, owner Nick Angelis's light, fragrant, superbly charred crusts ($11 and up) contrast beautifully with creamy fresh mozzarella -- melted but not boiled over -- and bright tomato sauce and basil. No wood, no brick, no coal -- how does he achieve pizza greatness with a conventional gas oven? The mystery is part of Nick's allure. That, and a wine list that goes beyond the basic pizzeria house red and white, plus killer cannoli that will change forever your perception of the Mulberry Street staple.

A year ago, we tracked down a favorite ex-Mezzogiorno pieman at Sapori d'Ischia in Woodside, Queens, working for importers Frank Galano and his son Anthony, who've transformed their wholesale-gourmet-Italian-foods warehouse into a red-hot red-sauce dining destination where you can still get a great deal on imported pastas and cheeses. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, there's live Neapolitan music; Thursdays are "opera nights." If the stellar thin-crust pizza, the homemade pasta pillows wrapped around spinach and ricotta, and Wednesday's hunky headliner, crooner Paolo Siani, aren't enough to lure you out to this industrial desolation row, factor in the steep discounts on extra-virgin olive oil, 25-year-old balsamic vinegar, and aged provolone -- all up for grabs, if you can work your way around the boisterous crowd.

NICK'S PIZZA, 108-26 Ascan Ave., Forest Hills (718-263-1126); SAPORI D'ISCHIA, 55-15 37th Ave., Woodside (718-446-1500).